The AV1 video codec is a landmark change in the video streaming industry. First released in 2018 by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), AV1 is royalty-free, crafted to replace the VP9 codec and become the IETF Internet Video Codec (NETVC) standard. AV1 is an ultra-high-performance video codec technology that delivers 20% more compression efficiency over existing VP9+.

From the device-side, as you'd expect from a company with 'media' in the name, MediaTek is leading industries with SoC's that have hardware-based AV1 decoding built-in. This is considerably more power efficient than software-based alternatives, meaning users can enjoy longer battery life while still streaming at the best quality settings.